The head of the Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC) George Kalandarishvili was doused with black paint at the beginning of the meeting where the results of the parliamentary elections were officially approved.
Echo of the Caucasus writes about it.
The incident occurred when Giorgi Kalandarishvili announced that the ruling “Georgian Dream” party had won 53.93% of the vote in the elections. A representative of CEC from the opposition United National Movement Davyd Kirtadze splashed paint on him.
"You donʼt hear the Georgian people, you donʼt hear protesting students. You have taken away the future of Georgia, our future, and are pushing our country towards Russia. I canʼt even call you a head, youʼre a "ru dot". You are a black spot," said Kirtadze, approaching Kalandarishvili with a glass of black paint.
After that, a jostling started in the hall, the meeting was interrupted. But later, the Central Election Commission officially approved the election results.
The ruling "Georgian Dream" received 89 parliamentary mandates, four opposition parties — 61 mandates in total ("Coalition for Changes" — 19, "United National Movement" — 16, "Strong Georgia" — 14, "Gakharia — for Georgia" — 12)..
How the elections were held in Georgia
Parliamentary elections in Georgia were held on October 26, 2024. According to CEC, the victory was won by the pro-government party "Georgian Dream — Democratic Georgia", which won 53.9% of the vote. According to Georgian laws, this party gets the right to single-handedly form the government.
Four more pro-Western opposition parties overcame the 5% barrier:
"Coalition for Changes" — 10.92%
"Unity — National Movement" — 10.12%
"Strong Georgia" — 8.78%
"Gakharia — for Georgia" — 7.76%.
The opposition did not agree with the results and began to hold protests. In early November, the court of the city of Tetri-Tskaro in the south of Georgia satisfied the lawsuit to annul the results of the October 26 parliamentary elections. The reason is a violation of the secrecy of the vote. The invalidity of the results was established in 30 polling stations.
Later, the Tbilisi Court of Appeal overturned the decision of judge Volodymyr Khuchua, who confirmed the violation of the secrecy of voting in the parliamentary elections.
What European partners say
The OSCE representatives stated that the election process in Georgia violated international democratic standards. Observers noticed cases of bribery of votes, double voting, physical violence and intimidation of voters, but the fact of direct falsifications was not confirmed. The head of the European Council Charles Michel called for an investigation into the parliamentary elections in Georgia.
On October 28, an action by opposition supporters took place in Tbilisi, where the current president Salome Zurabishvili emphasized the illegitimacy of the elections. One of the leaders of the "United National Movement" party Georgy Vashadze said at the rally that the opposition demands re-elections, which will be held by the international administration. On October 29, the Central Election Commission of Georgia announced that it would count the ballots of five polling stations (approximately 14% of the polling stations) in each electoral district to verify the data.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that the country "carefully observed the course of the parliamentary elections" in Georgia and supports the conclusions of the international OSCE mission, which recorded numerous violations.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.